Hello reddit, I'm currently working as a business analyst on a small analytics team (i'm one of 3 analysts) for a mid-sized pharmaceutical firm where i've been for almost 2 years (with prior 3.5 YOE as a data/business analyst in different industries). Unfortunately, my old boss (a Sr. Manager) and the Director of the group that hired me left the company within my first year, so we got a new Director who brought in a buddy from his former org as an "Associate Director" to manage me and the 2 other analysts.
Start of the year:
The A.D. has been my boss since January, and at first, things were okay. Everything was very fast paced with a strong sense of urgency, as we had a product that was falling behind in revenues a bit, so senior leadership looked to our group to deliver insights into the 'why' this happened. It was a tough start to the year - lots of ad hoc analyses and meetings with VPs to deliver answers, and I felt I did a pretty good job of keeping up with the pace. I feel as though the AD and D of the group relied on my output during this time as I had (and still have) the most knowledge of the data and where to look to find the answers we're being asked - on top of actually analyzing it/extracting insights and packaging it up into exec level powerpoints.
Current frustrations:
My boss pings me at least 10 times a day. Sometimes he'll spam me with messages early in the morning or late at night. These could be teams chats, emails, meeting requests, etc. A lot of the times he wants me to schedule a meeting, write an email, follow-up on something - just general 'admin' type work. My main gripe with this is that he will literally write paragraphs ABOUT the work, but will not lift a finger to do anything himself. It's like he wants to control everything - the content of the email, who it's being sent to, who it's coming from (always has to be me), without letting me just roll with it. I've demonstrated numerous times that I am capable of interacting with leaders solo... but my boss insists to have his oversight on literally everything I do. It feels like i've actually taken a step back in terms of development because of needing to 'confirm' with him on everything. He will insist on being on meeting invites where I really need to just clarify something with a stakeholder - and he offers no real assistance or insight, because he doesn't actually know the data. He asks me to set up meetings with vague details, and then half the time literally doesn't join or joins very late, knowing he's "double booked" but well let me "handle it" when it's convenient for him, with no prior communication or a quick "hey i'm double booked, you can do this without me"... and it's like, why are we even meeting then - I didn't request this!! Then the teams call starts, a senior sales leader is on the line and I just have to suck it up, join and try to roll with it while somewhat guessing at what it was my boss wanted to get out of the call...
I'm feeling very burnt out and depressed to be in this job... the pace of what we're expected to produce is enough to be stressful - but having the constant stream of messages and emails about action items, to-do's, follow-ups, and things to 'improve' and 'dig into' rips me from any deep concentration on work and spikes my anxiety. Perhaps there is also an underlying thing I have where I don't really respect him. I am used to having bosses handle things - be it some communication or actual hands on work. My boss does not seem to do much of either, while I feel like i'm up to my neck in work. Being the SME, the communicator, the presentor, the meeting scheduler, the guy actually being engaged in all these meetings with work to speak to... I'm starting to lose my mind. Is this normal for the field or am I crazy? I don't think my boss is a bad guy - I think he's a huge "worry wart" and takes this job and what's coming out of our group VERY seriously. He is a somewhat empathetic guy and doesn't seem to get frustrated and I know he's being pushed hard to deliver as well, but I just still feel unsupported and overwhelmed. Thoughts or strategies in how to deal with this??

TLDR VERSION;
Turns WoW Into An Adventure! No Mandatory Discord For Raids! Come and Go From Raids When You Please! Learners or Vets, All Are Welcome! Social Events Too!

1. No Mandatory Discord
2. Come and Go from raids when you please. Legit, if you're not having fun mid raid let us know and you can leave / join / rejoin whenever you please!
3. We Welcome All, Learners and Vets! We really want to help new players learn and grow, the game can be a tough one to learn so buckle up we can teach if you wish!
4. No Toxic / Elitist (Banter acceptable - but don't push it!)
5. Social Events that aren't just transmog runs!

MORE INFO VERSION;
Salutations wish to help turn WoW into a fun adventure! We have spent countless ages hand crafting the finest social environment and rules that help create a atmosphere of positivity that allows you and others to play and have fun as you so wish!
What we do to achieve this:

1. We create a no mandatory discord rule, this is because we know some people have kids or family to attend to. Others dislike social settings such as Discord and want to just text chat. Even in raids this is how it is, we will have a Discord for people who want it, but for those who don't no problem! All raid tactics will be spoken in text chat and we will learn through practice :-)
2. Come and Go rule, this is so people aren't forced to do something they aren't having fun doing. With this day and age we can always pug and help other people outside of the guild learn, it isn't a problem! This is a game, not a job so we decided to not make it feel like one! Also, the rule applies for coming or not to raids and also the timing in which you leave the raid. We don't mind if it is 5 mins into raid, 1 hour into raid or whatever, you do you!
3. We are a positive learner environment, we do not do elitism or toxicity. I don't care if you're dps isn't pumping (I don't even use dps meters) we play to have fun and if we get the kills we get the kills, if not we learned and had fun along the way :-)
4. Social Events, we have social events that I personally haven't seen others doing. Scavenger Hunts, Postcard Race, Mortality Darts, Lv1 Racing, Hide N Seek, Lazer Tag. All of these events are super fun and we'll be having 1-2 of them a week. I won't tell you more then the title of these social events but you can come experience them for yourself as to not spoil the surprise. Yes, all of these events are in-game.

So, if this sounds like your type of guild then hit us up! We are on Turalyon/Doomhammer I can either accept you from the Guild Finder or leave a message here or add my BNET: Gavedub#2733 or Join the none mandatory Discord: n2CGunryrc

So I have been with my boyfriend for a bit over a year now and we’ve had problems with his female friends. I’ve never been the jealous type but I feel disrespected:
He has two female friends. Neither of them live in our city but rather 4+ hours away so he only texts them. He’s always been adamant they’re just friends but he has had sexual relations with one (let’s call her S) and has exchanged inappropriate messages with the other (let’s call her M)
When I first met S online, she spilled all the sexual details as a first greeting and generally made me feel awkward but I was nice regardless. I messaged her afterwards saying if we could hang out online a bit to get to know her since she’s his friend to which she got very hostile and told him I was trying to “mark my territory” when i genuinely felt like that’s what she did. But I digress. He did not take my side but rather comforted her and played the “you’re both at fault card”. I was never invited back to their weekly online gaming session because she felt uncomfortable around me. He never stopped playing though.
Then there’s M. He’s gone on a date with her years back but they’ve kept in contact. He keeps reassuring me that he doesn’t have feelings but as of last year before we met he kept telling her how sexy she looked. And two years ago he even sent her a vibrator “as a joke”. She doesn’t want to meet me at all not even online and I suspect it’s because of things he told her which I can’t prove obviously. So she doesn’t respect boundaries like us going on vacation she’ll constantly message him and he would respond. He’s conveniently always forgot about talking about me too, although I know she knows about me. He would on the regular order her food too and they’d be online and chat while eating. Which I felt was like a date.
So I asked him if he could just slow down the contact and tell me what they were talking about. In December I found out he had constantly been texting her (I accidentally looked at his phone because his sister was in the hospital, he was asleep and he was getting a TON of messages in a row). He even lied to her by saying he’s only spending Christmas at work when he actually had Christmas dinner with me.
Ever since then he’s been lying about texting her. Hiding the conversations (deleting them and telling me she hadn’t texted). I saw a message pop up once and he pretended he didn’t know he had it… he also made a naked AI picture of S that I accidentally found. He gaslight me into believing he didn’t know what that was about.
I told him if I ever caught him sneaking around like that again it’s done. Now we are on vacation and the first night (the night before my birthday) I found out that he had texted M and deleted it saying “I so greatly value our friendship, I don’t want you to worry but I won’t be able to text as much the next few days”. No mention of me at all. He had deleted the messages but kept a screenshot so he know where they had left off.
Now I asked him her or I and he said he can’t give me an answer. Otherwise he’s the most affectionate and loving guy, but this is an emotional affair right? I offered him some more “rules” instead of completely breaking it off but he isn’t really having it. I cried all throughout my birthday hysterically and I don’t think any of my hurt emotions are getting through to him.
Tbh I feel like I won’t find another guy so affectionate and caring otherwise (all my ex boyfriends had been mean) but I also don’t like what this is doing to me or who I have become. Any advise? I am also his first girlfriend. All my friends know him and it also feels odd that these girls have such a terrible opinion of me before meeting (so they’re either using him and don’t want that to stop or he’s feeding them lies)

I (30M) just moved to a new city and moved into a place with 1 roommate (31M). The listing was on FB marketplace, I came to view, the place was really nice and he seemed like a nice guy so I registered my interest and moved in last week.
I work a 9-5 and he works nights, leaving the house about 10pm and getting home about 9am. Because of his hours we don't see too much of each other, he sleeps in the day and is up for a couple of hours before work so I may see him for a brief period in the evening.
Amber flag 1 Day 3 – He had a night off so we sat chatting for a bit, and then I went to bed, he said he wanted to stay on the same schedule so was going to stay up. The following day I got home from work and put the tv on and he had typed into the search bar of a streaming service "just relax and let my mind turn to mush" which felt a bit eerie to me.
Red flag 1 Day 4 – I was at the gym post work, he messaged me saying had a friend round and asked if I wanted to join for a drink and wanted anything, I said a beer but he said I got back to him too late (response time 2 mins) but I could have a selzter he bought. This felt a bit off for me so I went and got a beer myself on the way home. We're sitting round chatting and his friend said he thinks he's already met me more than the previous roommate to which my roommate responds "yeah there was no last roommate, not after I got done with her!". Very awkward laughter ensues. He then says "good job you didn't drink that seltzer hey!". They decided to go out but I had work early so stayed in and also felt uncomfortable after that interaction.
Amber flag 2 Day 7 – The next few days he's at work so don't see him much. Yesterday he was asking what I was up to today and I said I was going running in the morning and then seeing a friend in the evening. He said I should go to this vintage market and specific vintage store nearby. He couldn't really remember the name and it came to him after a few seconds. It felt like he was trying to convince me to go and kept saying "I'm jealous I wish I could join you, you're gunna have a great time!" Even though I hadn't explicitly said I would go yet. Then I'm making dinner and his keys are on the kitchen table and I notice he has a keyring from this specific store with the name and address on. I found odd that he has this keyring, sees this everyday, yet couldn't really remember the name, then when he left for work he said again "you're gunna have a great time tomorrow jealous I can't come." This all felt a bit unusual to me, like he was trying to reverse psychology me into going, either way I had other plans so didn't go.
_
I've looked him up on FB/insta/Linkedin and everything supposedly checks out apart from the fact that his latest job which is the night shift is not anywhere which may be odd considering his Linkedin has everything up to that point. He has quite a 'bro' sense of humour so I don't know if it's a mix of that and maybe slight social awkwardness, but my gut is telling me something is off. What does the court of reddit think?

So for some context about exactly a year ago my ex girlfriend started working at a new job. It was a small locally owned job with not many workers, things were fine but eventually a guy started working there, we’ll call him Jeff. So they start working together and over time as a guy myself I am able to see when I think a guy is into my girl or doing things that catch my eye, for example he gets her phone number and starts light texting her, comes in on his day off with his dogs (shes the only one working) and they chat for a bit, starts talking about his life and past relationship. etc etc So I tell my girlfriend at the time “hey look I think this guys into you, I know you have to work with him so just keep that in mind” she would say things like “not everyones into me” “hes just friendly” and stuff like that So then I noticed she starts texting him back and she starts telling me how he skateboarded with lil peeps friend (she loves lil peep) and like I said he skateboards, and draws, and is a spiritual type of guy, and this is basically the vibe of my girlfriend.(not really me at all) So with that being said I start worrying because I told her this guy likes her and now they see each other everyday and shes engaging in text conversation with him. So for her work she doesnt work with him during a shift but she will work from 9-3 then he comes in at 3-close. So thats when I check her location at 3 and always see her still there until atleast 3:30 sometimes until 4 and I get immense anxiety just knowing theyre jusr chattin it up. So fast forward a week I talk to her about this tell her how its bothering me, she reassures me and all is good, but then she hangs out with her friend, they wore dresses and she ends up going on her day off to the workplace where just he is working. She said she just went to use the bathroom but ended up staying for up to an hour. Thats where I was losing it I was going crazy and anxiety filled inside of me. Later that night I pick her up and tell her everything Im feeling and crying to her (at this point we have been dating for a year and a half) She says she only wants me and we will be together forever etc. So basically Im just being manipulated and gaslit Because after about another week me and her are going to a concert. She has to switch with Jeff to be able to go so during her shift she asks and tells him about the concert and small talk stuff. So I ask if she mentioned she was going with me. Of course not to my surprise she said no and didnt mention me and it would be weird. She also followed him and he followed her and said he wont unfollow him because hes a good kid and they work together. She also has PCOS and apparently Jeffs ex had PCOS so he started sending her guides for PCOS via Instagram DMs and she would say he does things she wishes I did and that one stung.. Also a quick backstory me and her met at our other job and she had a boyfriend at the time! she ended up breaking up with him and we got together she would tell me how she would sneak to the bathroom to snap me back, she would say how she would try not to mention her boyfriend at the time to me essentially hiding him because the only reason I found out is beause our other coworker we were with asked about him. So with that being said guess what happens next, we are hanging out one night and I just have anxiety for days over all this stuff, she goes to the bathroom like 3-4 times in the past hour or two, so when she comes back I ask can i see your phone? she like gives me an evil smile and I look and to my surprise 5m ago Jeff so they were texting. This set me off and I cried due to the betrayal I felt and I knew I was right. This is getting long and I missed a lot still but her side to why she did this was because I wasnt a good boyfriend and granted I had my mistakes. I liked girls posts right in front of her and genuninely didnt have any meaning behind it I just like every post on my instagram feed. Also I had nudes far down in my camera roll but I never even knew they were there I never go in my camera roll and just go through it but I definitely see how these things can upset her. Also her dad is her main person she didnt grow up with a mom and her dad has been overdosing since 2019 so her mental health is extremely bad so she will constantly blame stuff on her mental health. So i would bring up this stuff with Jeff that happened a lot because it hurt me throughout the remainder of our relationship, she would say stuff like that was a year ago you need to get over it. And she told me how she was indeed wondering he would be a better boyfriend at the time so in the end I was right she manipulated and gaslit me and made me develop trust issues but I was right So now we break up and guess what? She follows him, she fckin follows him and now Im like wtf. So I confront her and she says she has been freaking out lately and my snap score has been going up fast and it never does (when I just started snapping friends and doing streaks) so she followed him. So I am wondering why he is her goto? and how its such a bad look like after all has happened and you let this one guy ruin my relationship, you follow him fresh out of our breakup? that is so disgusting. like why him? what possesses you to do that. and she says how Im a hypocrite because she follows one guy and I start snapping people but its like, its not one random guy? we know the history of this guy, you literally told me you were wondering if he potentionally would be a better boyfriend for you? you snuck to the bathroom to text him? oh yeah when that concert happened we went to, they were talking about it after and he said something like “Oh yeah I know that artist tell him i said wassup” (like a joke) and she goes “i actually crowd surfed and said do you know THE (the guys name) like on some flirting shit, so disgusting. the dude I got trust issues from, anxiety, couldnt eat thats who you followed. She also said a month ago over text if we broke up she would need time to heal and wouldnt pursue him or anyone. But here she is following him, pursuing him… Can I hear your opinion below on everything? I was treated so badly in this relationship, granted I made mistakes in the beginning but she literally let another guy thinking he has a chance, and follows him after we break up…

So for some context about exactly a year ago my ex girlfriend started working at a new job. It was a small locally owned job with not many workers, things were fine but eventually a guy started working there, we’ll call him Jeff. So they start working together and over time as a guy myself I am able to see when I think a guy is into my girl or doing things that catch my eye, for example he gets her phone number and starts light texting her, comes in on his day off with his dogs (shes the only one working) and they chat for a bit, starts talking about his life and past relationship. etc etc So I tell my girlfriend at the time “hey look I think this guys into you, I know you have to work with him so just keep that in mind” she would say things like “not everyones into me” “hes just friendly” and stuff like that So then I noticed she starts texting him back and she starts telling me how he skateboarded with lil peeps friend (she loves lil peep) and like I said he skateboards, and draws, and is a spiritual type of guy, and this is basically the vibe of my girlfriend.(not really me at all) So with that being said I start worrying because I told her this guy likes her and now they see each other everyday and shes engaging in text conversation with him. So for her work she doesnt work with him during a shift but she will work from 9-3 then he comes in at 3-close. So thats when I check her location at 3 and always see her still there until atleast 3:30 sometimes until 4 and I get immense anxiety just knowing theyre jusr chattin it up. So fast forward a week I talk to her about this tell her how its bothering me, she reassures me and all is good, but then she hangs out with her friend, they wore dresses and she ends up going on her day off to the workplace where just he is working. She said she just went to use the bathroom but ended up staying for up to an hour. Thats where I was losing it I was going crazy and anxiety filled inside of me. Later that night I pick her up and tell her everything Im feeling and crying to her (at this point we have been dating for a year and a half) She says she only wants me and we will be together forever etc. So basically Im just being manipulated and gaslit Because after about another week me and her are going to a concert. She has to switch with Jeff to be able to go so during her shift she asks and tells him about the concert and small talk stuff. So I ask if she mentioned she was going with me. Of course not to my surprise she said no and didnt mention me and it would be weird. She also followed him and he followed her and said he wont unfollow him because hes a good kid and they work together. She also has PCOS and apparently Jeffs ex had PCOS so he started sending her guides for PCOS via Instagram DMs and she would say he does things she wishes I did and that one stung.. Also a quick backstory me and her met at our other job and she had a boyfriend at the time! she ended up breaking up with him and we got together she would tell me how she would sneak to the bathroom to snap me back, she would say how she would try not to mention her boyfriend at the time to me essentially hiding him because the only reason I found out is beause our other coworker we were with asked about him. So with that being said guess what happens next, we are hanging out one night and I just have anxiety for days over all this stuff, she goes to the bathroom like 3-4 times in the past hour or two, so when she comes back I ask can i see your phone? she like gives me an evil smile and I look and to my surprise *5m ago Jeff* so they were texting. This set me off and I cried due to the betrayal I felt and I knew I was right. This is getting long and I missed a lot still but her side to why she did this was because I wasnt a good boyfriend and granted I had my mistakes. I liked girls posts right in front of her and genuninely didnt have any meaning behind it I just like every post on my instagram feed. Also I had nudes far down in my camera roll but I never even knew they were there I never go in my camera roll and just go through it but I definitely see how these things can upset her. Also her dad is her main person she didnt grow up with a mom and her dad has been overdosing since 2019 so her mental health is extremely bad so she will constantly blame stuff on her mental health. So i would bring up this stuff with Jeff that happened a lot because it hurt me throughout the remainder of our relationship, she would say stuff like that was a year ago you need to get over it. And she told me how she was indeed wondering he would be a better boyfriend at the time so in the end I was right she manipulated and gaslit me and made me develop trust issues but I was right So now we break up and guess what? She follows him, she fckin follows him and now Im like wtf. So I confront her and she says she has been freaking out lately and my snap score has been going up fast and it never does (when I just started snapping friends and doing streaks) so she followed him. So I am wondering why he is her goto? and how its such a bad look like after all has happened and you let this one guy ruin my relationship, you follow him fresh out of our breakup? that is so disgusting. like why him? what possesses you to do that. and she says how Im a hypocrite because she follows one guy and I start snapping people but its like, its not one random guy? we know the history of this guy, you literally told me you were wondering if he potentionally would be a better boyfriend for you? you snuck to the bathroom to text him? oh yeah when that concert happened we went to, they were talking about it after and he said something like “Oh yeah I know that artist tell him i said wassup” (like a joke) and she goes “i actually crowd surfed and said do you know THE (the guys name) like on some flirting shit, so disgusting. the dude I got trust issues from, anxiety, couldnt eat thats who you followed. She also said a month ago over text if we broke up she would need time to heal and wouldnt pursue him or anyone. But here she is following him, pursuing him… Can I hear your opinion below on everything? I was treated so badly in this relationship, granted I made mistakes in the beginning but she literally let another guy thinking he has a chance, and follows him after we break up… 

Hello, if anyone here has some free time to review my task 2 writing it would be really helpful to me and I would appreciate it a lot.
Here is the statement:

It is commonly believed that nowadays main factors that affect a child's development are media, pop culture and friends. A different point of view is that a family plays the most significant role. Discuss both views and give your opinion.

My writing:
It is argued by many that media, friends, and pop culture impact kids' development the most. However, detractors argue that family impact the kids' development more. After thoroughly considering both viewpoints, I firmly believe that friends and media affect the kids' development more than their parents.
Firstly, some people think media, friends, and pop culture are main influences to children's development. To elaborate, nowadays media are easier to access than ever. Smartphones and tablets are given to kids since young age, they can view various types of media through the internet, including but not limited to songs, movies, news, tv shows, and even political contents. These media undoubtedly affect the children's mindset. Furthermore, they can message and call their friends in a matter of seconds. This conveniency let children spend more time with their friends. For example, they can have a gaming session with their friends while chatting in a call, discussion various topics.
Secondly, others say that family is the most important factor to children's development. To explain, children learn from their parents since they were born. They tend to have similar mindset to their parents. For examples, if parents teach their kids about money management, the kids will likely spend their money wisely and know how to invest that money.
After careful consideration of both opinions, I am strongly convinced that friends and media are the most significant contributors to children's development. While it is true that children learn a lot of things from their family, they spend more time consuming media and talking with their friends

Hi guys so for context as i bring this situation up, i also would like to know what you overall consider appropriate ways on communicating on insta with strangers we follow and like/heart content of? Sometimes i might respond to a story with a friendly thing like “love yr artwork” or “great photo” nothing much to really look into, and when some message me saying “thx for the follow, cool profile” i pretty much do the same, conversation doesnt usually continue from there, i assume cause, well…we are strangers, its just politeness, though as i dont have many friends amd defo would love to chat more with people on insta i have stuff in common with, i completely understand the awkwardness and fear of it, and with this situation we have perhaps that example from his guys straight up ness, so.. we are both gay men, and i follow a bunch of travel and art profiles/ pages on instaggram cause its what im into, thats what public profiles on the platform are for, right?, and so this one account i started following ,the guy followed me back and messaged me the following,
HIM: “hey, How are you? Nice Profile 😘”
ME: “Hey, i'm gd thx, hbu? and same with yrs :) I especially dig the green eye imagery 👁️💚”
HIM: “Hey, thank you! I’m glad you like my eye color so much 😍 I’m doing great too. You have a really interesting profile. I really like it and I would like to find out more about you: where are you from and what’s your name? 😘
And how did you find out about my profile?”
Ok so…i dont really know how to fully interpret his kissing emojis, and i dont wanna seem rude, im all for a short regular friendly chat but , i dunno isnt it a lil, i dunno? …Quick to ask straight away my name and where im from? Like, i could be overanalysing this but, i thanked him already , we are from diff countries, he seems a legit human being, not a scam bot or that, he has lots of photos of himself and has a few thousand followers but, i just wanna respond nicely, without giving too much of my private life/details out there, advice plz? His photography is awesome, hence me following, and he has been nice from these messages, so how should i best respond to him. Cause ok, say i give my name and country, will he then ask for job title, if i am single, city i live in etc? I don't even know him, i dont love his green eyes lol, it was a post of a really close up shot of his eye which happens to be green, and i was being polite towards that image in my mind, not caring for the color itself, the “how did you find out about my profile” i am obviously fine with answering, it was merecely on homepage a travel pic of his appeared like thousands of others… did i do anything wrong? And going forward how should one socialize with people on insta without revealing too much or if i do then for whatever reason dont wanna chat more

Hi guys so for context as i bring this situation up, i also would like to know what you overall consider appropriate ways on communicating on insta with strangers we follow and like/heart content of? Sometimes i might respond to a story with a friendly thing like “love yr artwork” or “great photo” nothing much to really look into, and when some message me saying “thx for the follow, cool profile” i pretty much do the same, conversation doesnt usually continue from there, i assume cause, well…we are strangers, its just politeness, though as i dont have many friends amd defo would love to chat more with people on insta i have stuff in common with, i completely understand the awkwardness and fear of it, and with this situation we have perhaps that example from his guys straight up ness, so.. we are both gay men, and i follow a bunch of travel and art profiles/ pages on instaggram cause its what im into, thats what public profiles on the platform are for, right?, and so this one account i started following ,the guy followed me back and messaged me the following,
HIM: “hey, How are you? Nice Profile 😘”
ME: “Hey, i'm gd thx, hbu? and same with yrs :) I especially dig the green eye imagery 👁️💚”
HIM: “Hey, thank you! I’m glad you like my eye color so much 😍 I’m doing great too. You have a really interesting profile. I really like it and I would like to find out more about you: where are you from and what’s your name? 😘
And how did you find out about my profile?”
Ok so…i dont really know how to fully interpret his kissing emojis, and i dont wanna seem rude, im all for a short regular friendly chat but , i dunno isnt it a lil, i dunno? …Quick to ask straight away my name and where im from? Like, i could be overanalysing this but, i thanked him already , we are from diff countries, he seems a legit human being, not a scam bot or that, he has lots of photos of himself and has a few thousand followers but, i just wanna respond nicely, without giving too much of my private life/details out there, advice plz? His photography is awesome, hence me following, and he has been nice from these messages, so how should i best respond to him. Cause ok, say i give my name and country, will he then ask for job title, if i am single, city i live in etc? I don't even know him, i dont love his green eyes lol, it was a post of a really close up shot of his eye which happens to be green, and i was being polite towards that image in my mind, not caring for the color itself, the “how did you find out about my profile” i am obviously fine with answering, it was merecely on homepage a travel pic of his appeared like thousands of others… did i do anything wrong? And going forward how should one socialize with people on insta without revealing too much or if i do then for whatever reason dont wanna chat more…

I am a truggling to come up with ways of communicating with him. I am noticing other things that make me feel there is something more going on within him. We have very long work days so he takes his adhd medication in the morning around 6am and when 6pm rolls around, he is crashing. I get that 12 hour work days are a lot so the crash at 6pm could be simply because it’s been a long work day. On the work side of things, I am bothered by his comments. I feel like I’m in competition with my own husband. I have worked along side him for several years running OUR business. I managed the front end all this time, and now he says he is the ONLY one who makes things run right. This is extremely hurtful to hear.
He says things like:
“I am working so hard at making our main business successful”
“The business wouldn’t run the way it is if it wasn’t for me”
“The changes I am making is what will make the business profitable”
I feel these types of statements are quite grandiose and self centred. We have a team of people that ALL work very hard every day to make OUR business successful.
I always wanted my husband to come out of his introvert shell. I wanted to help him become more social and be able to interact with people more. He has definitely become more extroverted. I am proud of him for becoming more social and outgoing.I just feel he is taking things a bit far with his thinking. He told me the other day in the heat of an argument:
“I am an alpha male now so take it or leave it”
The time we get together as husband and wife is compromised by all of this. My husband would rather scroll his phone on the couch with the TV on for background noise.
The part that I struggle with that I feel he has no time for our relationship, rather he has all the time needed for business. He communicates with our bookkeeper several times a week. Either FaceTime, phone or text. I used to be a jealous person, but I have overcome that. Now I am just feeling envious. I want what she is getting from my husband. The talks and support they give to each other. They discuss business related stuff together which males sense. She is our bookkeeper. They discuss their bad days together and send each other uplifting and funny memes. I have told my husband I don’t really care for this. He tells me I’m insatiably jealous and that I need to get over it. He thinks I’m being controlling when I even make a comment about it. A lot of times, he will wait until he’s in his truck to call her, or close his door at our business, or take her a coffee and have an in person extensive visit at her business. I like our bookkeeper, I am trying to be friends with her. I just don’t share the same type of personality as her. I’m trying though.
The other aspect I am struggling with is his hyper-sexuality. Lately, I just don’t feel like initiating because of how he chooses to talk to me. What would I want to be intimate with someone who is rude to me all day? I also don’t think I am withholding intimacy. We are intimate at least once a week.
I actually feel there is something else underlying for him other than adhd. I just don’t know how to bring this up. I have tried in the past, and it backfires every time.
I love this man with all of heart and I want for nothing more than for us to be happy again! We are a power couple and I want to bring that back.
Thanks for reading my long winded post, any helpful suggestions is appreciated!

With the advent of social media, it's become so much easier to meet new people. Every now and then comes a narcissist to talk to me online, on any chatting playform or app, and it doesn't take much for me to recognize them.
The first one is a totally self-centered guy. All he does is send me single view pics on direct message showing all the things he's so proud of: his defined abdomen (probably out of hormones), his doctorate status (he sent a picture of his laptop and focused on him finishing the email with the "Dr." before his name) or his badge showing that he's a university professor. He's probably trying to impress and engage me with that. It doesn't impress me at all, for I noticed he's a narcissist out of all this self-centeredness and grandiosity. Also, it doesn't impress me because I see a totally empty and superficial person behind all these "statuses" or achievements. Besides, he never asked things about me or my life, which shows little to no interest. I'm glad I've studied enough about narcissism to not fall to these traps, but I know that in other times I would have been impressed. What I'm trying to do now is figuring out a way to stop talking to him without being rude, for I know they always do something in return, for example talking shit about us to others.
The second example is a guy who sees himself as very intellectual. From the beginning of our conversation, he downplayed me subtly because I'm so into sports and working out, implying that this is just "a cover" or "a package" and that there's nothing more about me than that. This is subtle violence, again. Another strong sign is their poor communication. There's always something a little off. It feels heavy, with implicit messages and may leave you a bit confused or wondering. Don't think too much, this is enough to tell they're narcissists. Communication with healthy people feels light and friendly. Regarding this guy, I'll be more direct and tell him I didn't like his approach and that I don't want to keep on talking, and that I hope this won't create any resentments, lol. Or I may just leave him on read.
Anyway, here's a bit of me sharing my experience so it may help you guys spot them more easily too.

I played in my first draft. I’m usually a commander player and have only been playing for a few years.
Everyone I played against was odd. This is my LGS and I only recognized 1-2 people. They were twitchy. I don’t really play this format and I’m not very good at just opening 5 packs and slapping them together. I had no chance of winning. I was never like “I can win if I draw X card.” I would sit down and say, “hi, I’m Jim. I have no idea what I’m doing and this is going poorly but I’m happy to be here and hangout.” One guy was like, “lol. Me too.” Then proceeded to explain this is his format and he’s a competitive player. I kind laughed inside.
No one trusted anyone. No one seemed to really be having any fun.
So I used the time to ask them questions about the format, what they thought of commander, discuss kids and the weather. Told them what I pulled. They were like “oh…you’ll find out.” But I still tried to Keep it casual and chat.
At one point when I was losing badly and was just trying to swing to live myself open so we could move on I was like “so what does your favorite deck do?” and my guy like slammed his cards down, put his hands out, and was like “ok. It does X and y to go infinite. Ok.” Then picked up his cards and began tapping his hands and twitching again like I was fucking Kasparov and the world was watching.
I have never seen such an intense group of people playing MTG. The judge opened with “this is casual. Rollbacks are fine. No freakouts.” So that is what I was expecting. Most of them were jumpy. They couldn’t stop moving. Their eyes were shifting around.
I’d be like “oh you didn’t have to tap for that much mana” and they were like “oh thanks for the catch, I’d do that for you too” and it was just odd.
I can not imagine any joy (and it sounds like they share the sentiment) in playing that format.
They weren’t so much rude, just nervous and oddly suspicious.
Is it the packs? Like are they really this intense over an extra couple packs of cards? Do they know they sell them at the counter?
Anyway, just sort of my experience. Wondering what other EDH players see or someone who plays both- Do you go from frenetic crazy person in standard or whatever to chill commander?

Yo Reddit- it’s been a crazy last few weeks and I wanted to start out by saying RIP to Jim Simons the GOAT. I’m continuing a series of posts sharing my experience getting started with automated trading. I haven’t had the availability I’d originally thought I would to dedicate to these posts, but I hope this is helpful information, and I’d encourage anyone starting out to go through my posts to learn about how to test your ideas and prepare for live trading.
In my last post, I walked through some different brokerage options and how to automate logging into your account. Since then, TD-Ameritrade has shut down their API but they’ve opened up access to the very similar Schwab API. With this in mind, I’d add Schwab to the list of brokerages to consider for automated trading, and I also want to shout out schwab-py which is a promising new library for Schwab.
In addition, I wanted to make a soft announcement about my etrade client, wetrade, which is in prerelease as of this post. You can check out wetrade by taking a look at the github or the documentation. I’ll plan to announce wetrade in a reddit post soon, but it can be our secret until then.
In this post, I’m going to talk about exception handling, logging, and deployment.

Part 6: Starting to trade in the real world

Planning for expected issues

When building automated trading systems, you need to plan for every possible issue that may come up. Because it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to predict every single issue ahead of time, I’d recommend running new systems or strategies at the lowest volume possible (often trading individual shares) for several months when starting out. That said, a lot of this stuff is possible to predict and worth accounting for ahead of time.
Trading issues
Sometimes you’ll run into issues placing new orders with your brokerage. This often happens during extreme volatility. For E-Trade, I’ve had to accommodate for a generic message stating the order has failed to process, and for a message indicating a price is unavailable for the security. In both cases, I chose to resend the order after waiting 1 sec. I’ve also used the same handling to accommodate an additional message for updating an order while a previous order update is still being processed.
If you’re using stop or stop limit orders to purchase volatile stocks, you eventually may run into a situation where you try to buy below the current price or sell above the current price which will cause your order to get rejected by the brokerage. I’ve often handled this scenario by converting my order to a market order, but this may not make sense for you depending on what you’re trying to achieve.
Server issues
Unfortunately most of the issues you’ll need to accommodate are computer errors. Even if these things happen infrequently, you’ll need handling so your system can run uninterrupted.
Some common errors include timeouts, reset connections, and messages indicating that the server or endpoint is unavailable. You can resolve most of these issues by retrying your requests, but since things move quickly in markets, you may want to change the plan if too much time has passed.
It’s also possible that you’ll run into an api rate limit issue if you’re making too many requests in a short time period. This is likely only to come up when you’re making a very high volume of requests, and you’ll need to throttle your requests in order to run under the rate limit. If this is not practical (for example when trading multiple brokerage accounts on the same user account), I recommend creating multiple user accounts if possible.
Another challenge is handling a disconnected user session. Some brokerages will log out of your account if you accidentally log into another device (or randomly for no apparent reason), and this can be very problematic if your system is running during a live trading session. Depending on the API, you may have access to a refresh token endpoint. If not, or if it doesn't work, you may need to automate logging in again when disconnected.
By the way, I’ve built in handling for all of this stuff and more in wetrade, and I think one big advantage of open source trading software is that it can help ‘crowdsource’ these exceptions, some of which are rare and may come up only once in a few thousand trades.

Keeping track of everything with logs and reporting

Even with a lot of experience and preparation, it may not be possible to plan for every possible exception that you’ll run into and it’s important to handle errors gracefully. In places where you possibly anticipate running into an error, it’s helpful to log your exceptions so you can track down unexpected issues. In addition, as long as we’re letting computers trade for us, we should log important events too so we can keep track of what’s happening.
Examples of non-error-related events to log include placing, canceling, and updating orders. Additionally, you likely want to log when orders are executed and may want to include other updates such as your current balance or position. You also may want to log events specific to your strategy. For example, if you are tracking the price of a security, you may want to log certain price changes and corresponding actions taken by your program.
For my personal trading, I’m aggregating activity from all of my accounts into Google Cloud Logging which makes it easy to collect, filter and review logs. This allows me to view only a single account at a time or filter activity to only look at errors, web requests, or user messages. I also generate html reports at the end of each day which summarize the activity for each account over the previous trading session. These reports help me digest the performance of the given trading strategy while the logs provide more of a record of what the program was doing.

Setting everything up

I recommend deploying trading applications (and other software) using Docker since it makes everything portable and easy to manage. Initially, I set up cloud deployment using an AWS lambda function that ran each morning to spin up an EC2 instance, install docker, and pull/run my images (with another script to tear the server down at the end of the day). This was reliable and pretty inexpensive, but I’ve since decided to deploy on a local docker host so that I can retain docker logs which hold on to the stdout history for each of your containers.
It’s also fairly easy to deploy a persistent docker host (in EC2 for example) and run your containers on a scheduled job on your server. If you utilize webhooks and need a persistent address, this may be the way to go. The best deployment for you really depends on your system, and you can switch between different types of deployment without too much effort using docker.
Docker usage is probably too much to cover in the remainder of this post, but I’ve included a primer in the wetrade documentation which demonstrates how to dockerize a python application. If you’re using another language, the process will be very similar but your entry point obviously won’t be a python file.

What’s next?

I’ve chatted with several members of algotrading over the past few months and it’s been fun and interesting to connect with different people from the community. One pattern I’ve noticed is that a lot of people are trading futures (mostly with IBKR), and I’m considering building a wetrade-esque futures trading library but don’t love IBKR’s API. For now, I’m going to continue to build out wetrade and prepare for an official launch soon. I’d encourage everyone to check it out and reach out with comments, questions, and feature requests.

I'm 15, so kind of young I guess. But this is something I've struggled with all of my life. At daycare I would hear people talking about hangouts and birthdayparties. I was never invited and no one really wanted to play with me. I would get mad because of how jealous I was. I only had one friend, who was "popular", so I was around other people a lot. But never made any deep connections or lifelong friends. I ended up in circles where I didn't get invited to stuff, or got shut out bc "nothing about you, we just want to be by ourselfs for once, you get it right?". I left and no one looked for me after. It got better with a new friend group, but still, I never saw them outside of school. Like, never. I didn't know where they lived or if I did, I didn't know what their house looked like. I organized sometimes, but I'm really bad at it so we just never saw each other. That friend group broke (not due to seeing each other, but just because of life really). Now in a situation where I have a lot of "kind of friend"' type of things, where if I see them we speak and are chill but we would never reach out to each other. This has lead to me spending another summer vacation by myself, like all the other ones. That's not an exaderation, I have spent every single summer without seeing a single friend even once. I'm just the guy that people like but don't really want to get close to. They'd rather stay with their other friends and chat with me once a while. It has given me a lot of incecurity issues that I won't go in further, but it's just that. Always chazing for a connection but hardly making contact with people. And people do like me, just not so much I'd be best friend material. Honestly, I'm lonely. But I just don't see a way out and have decited to wait another year to get into another school where new people and friendships await, but I just dont like being miserable all the time, waiting for a change to maybe be happy in like multiple years...

I think I'm reaching out for some feedback and, hopefully, for someone to help me determine what my next should be regarding my time with this company. After looking for months for a full-time job in my field, I found one, and the pay is excellent. But from the start, it's been terribly stressful.
When I interviewed for the job - as a contract worker, so temporary - my would-be boss came across as laidback and even fun to work with. Soon after I started working, I was tasked with writing my first article. I was told what to include in the article and thought I got all the details I needed. After getting confirmation that I was on the right path, I wrote and sent in the article, only to be told it wasn't what she wanted at all.
This confused me, since we'd confirmed everything beforehand. That's when I shared that - in my freelance roles and last full-time writing and editing role - we'd used some form of pitch doc or content brief to help alleviate confusion. She declined, saying, "We never needed that in the past."
So, I sent her an outline for the next version. Iwhen it was approved, I wrote the second draft. Then she asked for a meeting. This time, she asked me why it was so hard for me to follow directions. When I tried to tell her I did what she'd approved in the outline, she got more, well, aggressive with her feedback.
At some point, embarrassingly, I started tearing up. I really had worked hard on this piece - and I'd never had this kind of criticism before. That's when she told me that I basically needed to get a backbone if I wanted to be a writer. I tried to tell her I wasn't emotional about the feedback, but the confusing process and how I was feeling put on the spot. It was late in the day, and I was tired. (For the record, I'm 51 - have been a full-time content creatowriteeditor for 30 years).
The third try was the charm, albeit with copious edits she said she felt she needed to make.
I'll spare you the whole story, but this type of situation keeps happening in one way or another. After I suggested that we create an Excel doc for all the content for the new website - she agreed. But when I showed her what I created, she was unhappy. It wasn't what she'd thought I'd do.
When I asked her for clarity, she agreed to a 10-minute Teams chat to share her screen so I could see what she wanted. That seemed to annoy her. She was curt on the call. Again, she gave me the "I don't understand why this is so hard for you" talk.
Needless to say, the content management system we use is buggy. I've been told to consult the manual to learn how to get around it, which is fine. However, my manager and our coworker work on the website together. Then, they pass tasks along to me to figure out for myself. When I asked them to work with me for 10 minutes when I was stumped on something, they asked me to look at the handbook.
This Thursday, two days before my manager was starting a week's vacation, she looked at the new website (not launched yet) and saw that some pages I've been working on still have issues. That's true. I'd told her I was still working out the issues but that I should have everything fixed very soon.
She didn't like that response and really laid into me. Again, she asked why I couldn't understand or follow directions. When she said, "I don't even know what you've been doing with your time," it really stung. I loved my work, took pride in it, and even worked full-time a couple of weeks ago while on vacation because I didn't want to leave my team hanging.
When she reprimands me, it's sort of a rapid-fire thing. I don't have time to answer her questions and explain myself. When I told her she was starting to make me anxious - she didn't stop. The next day, I told her I was sorry that she was so unhappy with my work. That's when she told me she didn't think she could work with me any longer because I was... hostile. Of all the things that haven't made sense that's the biggest of all.
I told her I'm a lot of things -- but hostile isn't one of them. She also said that I was negative and complained a lot -- I tried to tell her that I really loved what I did, that I may have sounded negative when she asked me to explain myself, and that I was sorry.
There are other small things that are sometimes bigger things - they won't give me access to OneDrive but they want me to edit from OneDrive (so they have to email docs first). She asked me to prepare a presentation about SEO. I did it, and she forgot she asked for it.
When I told a few of my friends about this - they all told me to get out. I think I agree. The issue is that I need to pay my mortgage and the job market is terrible. But... on the other hand, is this job worth my mental health?
My take is that she's super serious about her role as a VP. Doesn't want me to make her look bad.
Any help is greatly appreciated. And thank you for reading my long post.

Dominican Republic was an interesting experience, while I loved practicing my Spanish, I won't be back. Nothing bad happened, just nothing was exceptional about the place, one visit was enough, I have high hopes for it being a better travel destination in future. The downside was really just the food and service, which was quite abysmal.
I've broken it up into separate posts for each area I was in, (4 spots in 3 weeks), but the main takeaways are:

• DO NOT DRIVE - DR has the highest vehicular fatalities in the world, get private transport between the towns you visit.
• While the main tourist areas are safe to visit and wander around day and night, do not venture out to other areas, our local drivers told us it is very dangerous elsewhere.
• Food is quite awful to average, we could count on one hand how many good meals we had. Although, my partner and I don't eat meat (but do eat seafood), you'll have a somewhat slightly improved experience if you eat meat and have more options.
• Average restaurants will cost between $25-35 CAD per person for an average meal that isn't special or cooked well. Very local places are cheap though ($15-20 CAD), but there aren't many of those in the areas with good wifi for remote working.
• Outside of the resorts, you will need a good basic understanding of Spanish, not just basic tourist phrases, my partner and I had a Spanish teacher for 3 months once a week and we still struggled a little.
• Wifi varies in the DR, we were lucky enough to find places that advertised over 50mbps download speed to work, but in reality it fluctuated daily dropping below 40mbps sometimes and upload speed was even worse for video calls. Their routers also only worked well in the room they were in, and not well in the bedroom/office. We got by but it was a little inconvenient.

April 22-26: Uvero Alto - Ocean El Faro & El Beso https://www.oceanhotels.net/en/punta-cana-hotels/ocean-el-faro
I was lucky enough to stay here for a coworking summit with my company. We got a great corporate deal and splurged on a “Swim-Up Junior Suite” which was still only US$150 per person all inclusive. While a stunning resort, I am very glad we didn’t pay anymore than we did, as the quality and value was lacking. I was there with my partner for 6 nights, 7 days and that was too long. I’d say 3-4 days is plenty to experience it all. However, I am not a resort person and this was my first resort experience, I would be happy to not experience another resort, unless it was heavily subsidized and a stunning location. Quick review of all the amenities:

• El Mercado - as people have mentioned in many reviews, one of the better restaurants to eat at.
• Italian restaurant - didn’t get to try, again, as mentioned, almost impossible to get a reservation if you’re not privilege. From what I heard the portions were very small but food was decent.
• Margarita - awful - AVOID, tequila tastes like watered down nail polish, people also saw mouse inside
• Sakura - terrible portrayal of Teppenyaki
• Route 66 - great for late night snacks
• Steak House - actually had great salmon here, probably the best restaurant I ate at, even though I don’t eat meat. Others said the steak was ok.
• Blue Moon - awfully slow service, but salmon isn’t bad here either
• Pez Dama - BEAUTIFUL spot for breakfast on a sunny day, only for El Beso and privilege guests. However, the variety is lacking and food was better at the buffet
• Villa Marina - closed while I was there
• Privilege Restaurant - didn’t get to try
• Snack Bar - not great, or veg friendly
• Snack Bar El Beso - crepes offered here were surprisingly decent
• Pool Bars - so fun, just don’t get any cocktails unless you like a cup of sugar with it. The pool bar by the lazy river is the most rowdy, surprisingly.
• Lobby Bar - great meet up spot for groups, especially as the lobby is beautiful
• Piano Bar - quite nice inside, cocktails are sickly sweet though
• Sports Bar - pool was fun, would be better if they had two
• Bowling Bar - incredibly hot and I almost got heat stroke, bowling was fun though
• Bar Disco - didn’t get to try
• Bar Privilege - didn’t get to try
• Beach Club El Faro - as mentioned by others in reviews, the pool bars are more fun
• Beach Club El Beso - it was nice to have a fun and quiet section
• Mike’s Coffee - as mentioned by others in reviews, the busiest place in the resort!
• Ice-cream shop - limited options but still nice to stop by after dinner - but don’t get the strawberry!

April 26-May 3: Santo Domingo - Airbnb: https://www.airbnb.ca/rooms/1005877835635365302?source_impression_id=p3_1716938967_qCcY6F7gw1ARPg4Q Private transport from hotel to Airbnb: https://www.bookaway.com/ It was a little disorientating leaving the resort which seemed like some fairyland to Santo Domingo which was REAL Dominican Republic. We booked a private shuttle which was nice, they came 20 mins late but we weren’t in a rush and our local driver was very kind, social and gave us some tips about the capital city and country. He also advised to not leave the capital city as the surrounding neighbourhoods had a lot of crime and you would likely get stabbed and robbed :/ We arrived at our Airbnb in about 3.5 hours (with a brief pitstop). Our airbnb was bare bones, while nice, we wouldn’t recommend it for remote workers as it was hard to cook food there, however, if you’re out exploring all day, this place would suffice. The pool was nice but the gym was unusable as the air conditioner was broken so you had to work out in 35 degrees celsius plus. It was nice to be close to the grocery store though nearby and restaurants within walking distance. While the streets seemed a bit sketchy, it was very safe. We did take Ubers as well which were so cheap, DRP300-500 for 5-10 min rides. We preferred our area over Zona Colonial as there was more to do, but it would’ve been nice to split our time between the two areas. All in all, we’re glad we got to see the real Dominican Republic but were happy to be back close to the beach afterwards. Reviews of excursions and restaurants below. Dominican Culture Around the Fogón: https://www.airbnb.com/slink/V5iWBddV Incredible experience, loved making coffee and chocolate from scratch, learning the ways of the Taínos and the yucca pizza was surprisingly super tasty! Underground swimming hole was also really cool and Jasmine was such a fun host! Even though we half spoke each other’s languages, I had so much fun talking with her and highly recommend this tour! Hiking Tabernacle thundering Waterfall: https://www.airbnb.com/slink/mqMnhLjY Ronnie is the man!! One of the most professional and patient hosts I’ve ever met. He easily navigated the varying levels of skill our group had, made it easy for us to all connect and get to know one another. The chat during the 2 hour ride was seamless and Ronnie even stopped to let us try Arepa! Breakfast family style beforehand was also super tasty with eggs, fried cheese, mashed potato and mangu. The tour itself was so much fun and definitely action packed! I recommend this tour for those who are medium to highly fit, it’s more of a struggle for those who aren’t active. I’m scared of heights and had a couple of sketchy moments but it was so rewarding to finish the hike at the end. Water is also quite cold! It’s manageable but there were many moments where I was trying to find sun spots to warm up. Lunch at the end was also great and I appreciate Ronnie accommodating us last minute (we forgot to mention we didn’t eat meat) and he organised some eggplant to go with the rice, salad, tostones and beans. On the way back, Ronnie also got us some Dominican treats to try, Yanniqueque, Dulce de maní and a coconut - all part of the tour! The best part though was he stoped at a mango stand where we bought 8 mangoes for $2.35CAD! The best mangoes I’ve ever eaten. Thank you Ronnie for an unforgettable experience! Restaurants we went to in order:

• El Ramero Solitario - Ramen Bar - decent veggie ramen that was great for our hangover that we had
• Ajuala - (EN friendly) One of the BEST meals I’ve ever had! I don’t know if it was because we had a week of terrible food but I thought I was in heaven eating here. Love how they had turned Dominican cuisine into fine dining. They also had a mother cat and her kitten living on site and you could see them when you went to the bathroom which was cute.
• Chingu Kitchen - ok Korean food, with ok pricing. Ordered veggie Japchae and Bibimbap.
• Food Truck Village - it was intense coming to the food truck places, as we didn’t realize how they ran. When you sit down, all the vendors will bring you a menu which felt overwhelming. We got a margarita pizza (DRP400) from the pizza place and salpicon (DRP500) from the ceviche place, as they were recommended by the bar owner we befriended. We ended up drinking all night with the bar owner who gave us a few free drinks, it was really nice of him and one of our funner nights. Highly recommend checking out the bar especially here for good drinks and banter!
• Likha Food Park - we ate at Taínos sea food Naco which was not the best, our fish was undercooked and heavily salted. My 1lb of tilapia and tostones was DRP750 and my partners 1.5lb of snapper with tostones was DRP1350.
• Villar Hermanos - recommended by one of our guides, was quite tasty and decent pricing since you get large portions. I enjoyed the camarofongo which was doused in garlic butter - super heavy dish though and very dense. Also ordered filette de mero criolla style with rice and extra sautéed vegetables on the side - which was way too much for two people.
• Jalao - (EN friendly) Don’t come any earlier than 9pm! We got there at 8pm and the music didn’t start until around 9:30pm. The band was good but the music was a but monotonous. The food was ok but we did see cockroaches in the restaurant which was off putting. The fun really starts after the band ends though and everyone is up dancing. My favourite part of this experience was an older man who was hired to dance and get other people to dance who he was absolutely hilarious.

May 3-5: Bayahíbe - Booking.com Villa Iguana
Bayahíbe was SUCH a cute town, I wished we could’ve stayed here for a couple more days to enjoy the water which was so beautiful and clear. The infrastructure is limited for remote workers though, average 20mbps download speeds, hence why we only came for the weekend. As it is a small town, 3-4 days would suffice, you can walk around the whole town centre in 45-60mins probably. But you could also head over down south towards where the hotels are to experience some other restaurants and beaches. Highly recommend visiting Cueva de Chicho while here, very cool experience swimming in a cenote cave with bats - bring a waterproof head lamp if you can! This is the only swimmable cave in the area and it cost DRP200 pp to enter and walk 20 mins to the cave from the entrance. I’m not sure if this was normal either but there was a large market on Friday night in the town centre with a DJ which had a fun local feel. We had an unfortunate event when we were leaving Bayahíbe to Bávaro via Uber - we recommend you DO NOT DO. Use Bookaway and pre-book a shuttle. We actually had a shuttle booked originally but they accidentally cancelled it for no reason when we were in Santo Domingo and because Ubers were cheaper and we got one from Santo Domingo to Bayahíbe no problem, we thought it’d be fine. We ended up spending an hour trying to get a driver to take us, but they all kept calling to ask for double the price that was on Uber, where it advertised DRP2500 and the drivers wanted us to pay DRP4000 cash. So we kept cancelling and being bumped between the limited drivers available. Eventually one driver refused to cancel so we couldn’t find another driver, essentially forcing us to use him. It was a very uncomfortable experience, we felt scammed as all the drivers kept saying the same price but shame on Uber if they truly do underpay their drivers there - which is the reason the drivers gave. However, we paid DRP5000 to go from Santo Domingo to Bayahíbe which is double the distance, so I don’t know what was fair or not, perhaps we cheated that driver. Reviews of excursions and restaurants below. Vip Cruise on SpeedBoat to paradise Mano Juan, Saona Island: https://www.airbnb.com/slink/QdC06cdN All in all this was still a good trip but it was a little unorganized and we didn’t see/do everything on the itinerary. We also didn’t leave the port until around 10:15/10:30am, there was only one bottle of water per person all day provided (luckily I brought my own water), we didn’t get a coconut either with lunch nor visit the shipwreck for snorkelling. I wish we spent more time during the morning activities, and less time at the old fishing village. It started off well but got boring towards the end. I don’t know if I’d recommend this tour at the current cost, there are similar tours for half the price, so feel a little cheated seeing as we didn’t get/do everything we were supposed to. Isidro was nice though, and seeing the baby sea turtles was definitely a highlight, water was also stunning.

• Playa BarcoBar - good lunch spot, food was ok but view was great and service was nice and quick. Drinks weren’t bad either!
• Restaurante Comedor Johana - little spot tucked away and ran by a sweet older lady. Service is quite slow but food was very authentic.
• La Bahia Beach - The atmosphere is the only thing going for this place. You’re better off getting empanadas from a local stand and heading to the beach for free, which is what I wish I did. The service was incredibly slow, and food awful.

May 5-11: Bàvaro - Airbnb: https://www.airbnb.ca/rooms/32934066source_impression_id=p3_1716939104_OS2Nv%2F5S2CgNAY1s I have mixed feelings about this place, it felt very touristy but had such great potential. The beach was unfortunately covered in sargassum and was not pleasant to swim, if you head north you might be able to find a spot to swim though. Thankfully we had a pool and since it was the shoulder season, basically had it all to ourselves. Restaurants were more expensive than I thought for the quality, I wish I ventured into the local area, Friusa, driving past it looked like it would have tasty cheap eats! We didn’t do much here since it was our last 6 days and we were only here during the week, but we did get an Uber to Playa Macao which didn’t have as much sargassum and was really nice to swim in. Barely any amenities there though so pack some food and drinks with you as the restaurants that are open are quite expensive for the quality. Reviews of restaurants below.

• Villa Blanca Beach Club - terrible service but surprisingly good fish burger and salads
• Bella Napoli Pizzeria & Restaurant - really good woodfired oven pizza - vegan options were great!
• La casita de Yeya Los Corales - food was good but very small portions so quite expensive for what it was
• Chic at Grand Palladium Bávaro - such a fun experience, the energy is incredible, the performances were 5/5 and food and drinks were great - highly recommend for a special event. If you’re not staying there it’s a bit of a pain to book though
• Dalia's Cafe & Bakery - terrible - don’t go
• Soles Beach Club - decent food and lovely staff but very slow service
• Restaurante Capitán Cook - low quality food, they served us grilled mussels that weren’t open and they lure you in with the decent prices for whole fish but you can’t order 1 or 2 lbs you have to order 6lbs.
• COFFEE & RUM - great spot for sugar cane juices and cheap coffee and snacks! Location on google maps is wrong though, it’s actually here in this plaza: https://maps.app.goo.gl/Xb5pLGmqNBgdCDHW8?g_st=ic

TLDR: Ocean El Faro/El Beso is a beautiful resort, but has terrible food. Hike Tabernacle with Ronnie and eat at Ajuala in Santo Domingo; Book private transport in and out of Bayahibe; Don’t make Bávaro a priority to visit, can be easily missed - it’ll be better later on
Hope this is helpful for some people, let me know if you have any qs!

Sunday, June 02 - Saturday, June 08, 2024

Fresh Albums

score	comments	title & link	mirrors
1,615	345 comments	[FRESH ALBUM] Charli XCX - BRAT	[AM] [Dzr] [SC] [YT]
196	32 comments	[FRESH ALBUM] KAYTRANADA - TIMELESS
194	55 comments	[FRESH ALBUM] AURORA - What Happened To The Heart?	[BC] [Dzr] [SC] [YT]
84	10 comments	[FRESH ALBUM] Tems - Born in the Wild	[AM] [Dzr] [SC] [YT]
74	11 comments	[FRESH ALBUM] Peggy Gou - I Hear You	[AM] [BC] [Dzr] [SC]
65	21 comments	[FRESH ALBUM] Dagny - ELLE
31	11 comments	[FRESH EP] Chrissy Chlapecka - Girlie Pop

 

Fresh Videos

score	comments	title & link	mirrors
1,416	406 comments	[FRESH VIDEO] Sabrina Carpenter- Please Please Please	[Sp] [AM] [Dzr] [SC]
1,139	283 comments	[FRESH VIDEO] Ariana Grande - the boy is mine (Official Music Video)	[Sp] [AM] [BC] [Dzr] [SC]
624	310 comments	[FRESH VIDEO] Billie Eilish - CHIHIRO
228	21 comments	[FRESH VIDEO] RAYE - Genesis.	[AM] [Dzr] [SC]
101	26 comments	[FRESH VIDEO] Grant & Ash - A Twink and a Redhead (Official Music Video)	[Sp] [AM] [Dzr]
90	11 comments	[FRESH VIDEO] Poppy - New Way Out	[Sp] [AM] [Dzr] [SC]
63	13 comments	[FRESH VIDEO] AURORA - Starvation	[Sp] [AM] [Dzr] [SC]

 

Fresh

score	comments	title & link	mirrors
1,129	457 comments	[FRESH] Sabrina Carpenter - Please Please Please
903	204 comments	[FRESH] Sabrina Carpenter teasing next single
548	112 comments	[FRESH] Halsey - The End
365	64 comments	[FRESH] Halsey announces new song coming June 4th
335	46 comments	[FRESH] RAYE - Genesis.
247	93 comments	[FRESH] Gracie Abrams - Close To You	[AM] [SC]
146	28 comments	[FRESH] Orville Peck, Kylie Minogue, Diplo - Midnight Ride	[SC]
119	37 comments	[FRESH] Porter Robinson - Russian Roulette
98	10 comments	[FRESH] Review: With 'Brat' Charli XCX Dances on the Edge
82	8 comments	[FRESH] Jungkook (BTS) - Never Let Go	[AM] [Dzr] [SC]
74	11 comments	[FRESH] Alice Longyu Gao - Lesbians <3	[Dzr] [SC]
73	7 comments	[FRESH] Shygirl - Club Shy RMX
64	14 comments	[FRESH] Omar Apollo - Less of You
63	11 comments	[FRESH] Latto, Flo Milli, Megan Thee Stallion - Sunday Service Remix	[SC]
63	11 comments	[FRESH] Doechii - MPH	[AM] [SC]
60	9 comments	[FRESH] Raveena - Junebug (feat. JPEGMAFIA)	[AM] [Dzr] [SC] [YT]

 

Top Performances

score	comments	title & link	mirrors
345	91 comments	[PERFORMANCE] Ariana Grande: the boy is mine | The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon
53	3 comments	[PERFORMANCE] “Too Sweet” - Hozier (Live on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert)	[Sp] [Dzr] [SC]

 

Top 5 Other Posts

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2,258	966 comments	[ARTICLE] Lana Del Rey on Taylor Swift’s Success: ‘She Wants It More Than Anyone’
2,127	334 comments	[NEWS] [Sabrina Carpenter on Instagram: "“Short n’ Sweet”
MY NEW ALBUM IS COMING OUT AUGUST 23rd!!!!💋](https://www.instagram.com/p/C7wtSb1Reh1/?igsh=MTl1djdhb3phbnFlYg==)
1,870	299 comments	[ARTICLE] ‘I could eat that girl for lunch’: the sexually explicit queer female pop topping the charts
1,629	263 comments	[REVIEW] Pitchfork Review: Brat (8.6 BNM)
990	146 comments	[NEWS] Dua Lipa becomes the first artist in history to have 5 songs with over 2 Billion streams each on Spotify!

 

Sunday, June 02 - Saturday, June 08, 2024

Fresh Albums

score	comments	title & link	mirrors
117	7 comments	[FRESH ALBUM] KAYTRANADA - TIMELESS	[AM] [Dzr]
116	15 comments	[👀] [FRESH ALBUM] L'Impératrice - Pulsar	[Dzr]
108	18 comments	[FRESH ALBUM] Goat Girl - Below the Waste	[Sp] [AM] [Dzr] [SC]
78	15 comments	[FRESH ALBUM] Bonny Light Horseman - Keep Me on Your Mind/See You Free	[AM] [BC] [Dzr]
55	6 comments	[FRESH ALBUM] Peggy Gou - I Hear You	[Sp] [AM] [Dzr] [SC]

 

Fresh

score	comments	title & link	mirrors
227	30 comments	[FRESH] Jamie XX - Treat Each Other Right	[AM] [BC] [Dzr] [YT]
102	23 comments	[FRESH] OSEES - CASSIUS, BRUTUS & JUDAS	[Sp] [BC] [Dzr] [SC]
99	13 comments	[FRESH] Soccer Mommy - Lost	[AM] [BC] [Dzr] [SC]
89	13 comments	[FRESH] Porter Robinson - Russian Roulette	[AM] [Dzr] [SC] [YT]
76	26 comments	[FRESH] Caribou - Broke My Heart	[AM] [Dzr] [SC]
73	19 comments	[FRESH] Friko - Weird Fishes/ Arpeggi (Radiohead cover)	[AM] [Dzr] [SC]
70	13 comments	[👀] [FRESH] Cola - Pulling Quotes (ex-Ought members)	[AM] [BC] [Dzr] [SC]
67	7 comments	[FRESH] Moses Sumney - Vintage	[Sp] [AM] [Dzr] [SC] [YT]
51	9 comments	[FRESH] illuminati hotties - Didn’t (feat. Cavetown)	[Dzr] [SC]
48	7 comments	[FRESH] The Jesus Lizard - Hide & Seek (new album "Rack" out September 13)	[Dzr]

 

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2,892	418 comments	Hunter Biden Played Fleet Foxes While Receiving A Lap Dance And Smoking Crack, Dancer Testifies
846	116 comments	Jamie XX album 'In Waves' releasing on September 20th via Young – features Romy, Oliver Sim, Panda Bear, Robyn, The Avalanches, Honey Dijon, Kelsey Lu, John Glacier, and Oona Doherty
768	352 comments	Spotify hikes prices for Premium subscribers in the US… again
649	516 comments	[DIIV Takeover!] We are diiv. Ask us anything.
480	152 comments	The Black Keys Fire Managers Irving Azoff and Steve Moir After Botched Arena Tour

 

NOTE = "Skip to 9th Paragraph for the meat";
I've been doing Cododev's Node.js core concept course after hearing very great things about it in this sub. I'm a big fan of - - low level programming - rebuilding framework from scratch - diving deeper into source code
I've worked as a Data Scientist and an Application Developer (Flutter). Dart has a strong backend support but since I was a complete beginner in Backend, it was hard for me to straight away start with Adapters, Middlewares and Routing.
I tried express but it felt like cheating.When I say app = Express() I get a server. What the fuck is a server??? With Firebase and Cloud, I was getting even more confused.
I wanted to learn Go, Axum, Spring, Node and I was evaluating - actually wasting time without learning anything because everywhere they were using some framework which felt like a black box and I needed a low level guide that ensures i become a backend master by the end of it.
Characteristic of a good course is it just doesn't teach you the code, it teaches you the algorithm and constructs which you could use in any language or tool you wish and that's when I found out about Cododev.
Why I decided to go with his Node. js course - 1. It was talking about basics before even touching HTTP for 30 hours. 2. He talked about TCP for 9 hours, HTTP for 9 hours, Taught UNix and C for 8 hours and a lot more... it's 50+ hour course. 3. You shouldn't measure a course by its length, so here's the projects which that course has -

• A File System,
• Literally any simulation with Event Emitters
• Streams from Scratch, and again a File System that uses stream to move files.
• A chat application on sockets(inherited from Duplex Streams) and TCP Server(extends Event Emitters)
• A fucking Google Drive, file uploader on Cloud
• DNS Server
• HTTP on top of TCP
• Coding and Express like framework from scratch ( this one made me buy his course)
• A social media with JWT authentication
• Unix, C, Bash Scripting
• Ffmpeg and using it with node on a server for an online video editor.
• Compression and implementating algorithm on buffer, binary, hex level.

Course isn't complete yet, moduls that are left are - 1. Encryption and Cryptography 2. Worker Threads (and multi threading? I don't know if Node is multi threaded, but whatever sort of Parallelism you could achieve with Isolates) 3. Security 4. Taking a huge open source project and Reimplementing the backend in the framework we started building from HTTP section.
What have I learned -
I now understand Binary, Hex, encoding ,ASCII, unicode(utf-8,16,32,..n), bytes, bits, how they relate to each other.
I understand the event emitters.. Events, .on(), .emit(), and could easily read docs for any such structure like Servers( they're EEs)
I understand Streams, How data is moved across places through memory, storage and network. I understand processing(CPU%), disk usage, and memory usage (of node's + high watermark value).
I understand Readable, Writable, Duplex and Transform Streams, and could implement them without the functions provided on file handle and I could manage and tweak how much memory or processing any Stream would use.
I understand about internal writable/readable buffers, buffer overflow, sync and async passage, safe/ unsafe streams, data event, end event, error event, drain event. Pausing, Resuming and Destroying a stream.
And at the end, piping and pipelines because that's the battle tested way but now I know both of those works and could even tweak source code at will.
Requests, Response, TCP Connection, Socket - they are all Streams.
Literally the bit level control over data, processing and memory - he taught me that.
I understand File Systems very well. On a server and on a client device. With streams, you could create a fully functional File system which can copy, move, delete, rename, create, etc. We did that.
Then he started with Networking. That was a journey. For hours he talked about followup things - 1. Internet 2. How it works 3. Communication 4. Wired Communication through Cables(he already taught us streams which is how communication or movement of data happen in memory and internal storage) 5. Switch, Cables, IP Addresses, Mac Addresses, Routers 6. Networking Layers and IANA. 7. Physical Layer, Data Link Layer, IP/Network Layer, TCP/ Transport Layer, and Application Layer. 8. DNS, IP Addresses - IPv4 and IPv6. Ports.
I'm sure I have missed something but you get the gist.. Now the course started properly. We started talking about TCP.
He literally went into Specifications, Headers, and on the wireshark captured the segments and made me understand how data flows throughout the entire world. I learnt about TCP Server in net module. It's events and methods. Clients(Socket Connection).
We then very casually hosted this Server on AWS. Made multiple clients and created a group chat with just readable and writable streams pausing, draining and resuming with a freaking Terminal UI. I was never as thrilled and understood chat application soo well.
We made a TCP and UDP uploader using which you could send your local files to any server through network using Streams with just TUI. We built an FTP protocol of our own.
At this time, without even knowing what HTTP and Web Server, I was able to Reimplement parts of Dart Shelf - A library in that allows you to create Middlewares and all.. Like implementing Requests, Response, headers and Servers from scratch, because it's the same thing with different syntax.
I then started with HTTP module. First of all I understood that I have already implemented HTTP while trying to make different custom protocols on top of TCP. That confidence boost was enough to go further -
I understood - all the headers - content type - mimes, content length, transfer encoding chunked, three way handshake, ack, syn was already done in TCP. - http versions, http headers, and body, HTTP methods ( for requests) - create, put, post, update, delete, head, get, option, etc and Idempotency and why adhering to it is important. - HTtP Responses ( For Responses) - Informational Range(1), Success Range(2), Redirect Range(3), Client Error(4), Server Error(5**). - We read IANA and MDN docs
He then started creating an express like framework. We started listening from a Server and used on() methods and functions to manage routes and sending different requests with different status codes.
I saw how if I returned HTML by writing it on a Response stream, it renders the freaking website. Fuck! I can also send audio, image, or any file type in the body through writing on the Response Stream at any required processing or Memory usage.
We implemented a routing functionality, a request handler and easy file transfer protocols and json protocols. I learned parsing and Stringifying and how even that is a cost.
Overall this framework can create a server like app = express(); about which I had no fucking clue about a month ago. Does JSON Parsing, Has an FTP, Handles routing for any kind of backend api structuring and send status codes. All in a chained method format..
Right now, I have just started building this Social Media application in the course using which we will develop our framework more.. I'm just starting this part of the course...
Over all I've never felt so confident in my backend skills and I have noticed that no matter in what language I see the backend code in - go, php, rust, Dart, python, Java, bun, deno, c, cpp - I understand it all. Everything makes perfect sense.
And I have only completed 60% of existing course. Course itself is 60% completed. I plan to use Dart anyways in my Flutter Apps but the crazy amount of knowledge this guy "Joseph" has poured into a course is unsurmountable.
For someone really experienced or a low level programmer, this might not be a big deal for a person completely new to backend and with very little knowledge of system programming and Linux - this course has been a freaking godsend.
That was my experience, Node is awesome! Thanks for reading.

Here is a list of things customers and employees do in the paint department that make me cringe and laugh in no particular order. I do really enjoy working in paint though. Most of the times

1. When there is a rush usually on the weekends and someone is standing in the paint pit behind you needing something tinted and they get mad you are ignoring them. Motherfucker don't you see the line? Get your butt in line.
2. When it is dead usually during the week in the evenings and a customer gets mad that I am not up at the paint counter. The usual interaction after they finally ask the cashier to call or page me is they have been waiting for 20 mins and there is nobody up here. I tell them once it gets slow I am usually packing out stuff in the aisles or helping out in other departments. There is never going to be someone standing up here at this hour in the evening and if you need help ask the cashier to call or over head page. If you want someone up here when you come in come during banking hours or during the day on the weekends. It is 50/50 if they are nice after that or not
3. When a customer asks an employee passing through a paint question or to tint paint when I am up at the paint counter. It is funnier if the employee looks like they are about to crap themselves. I tell the customer that I am who you need and they are just passing through
4. When a customer wants you to mess around with the formulas or comes in with an old ass paint can with formulas hand written on it and wants me to type them into the computer. We are not engineers here just let me color match it or pick a color from the wall
5. When a customer picks a color from the color wall and wants me to tint primer
6. When a customer grabs the wrong base. I appreciate the effort but I know where all of this shit goes. Bonus points for if they freak out when you tell them you need a different base and you have to explain that the tint goes into the base
7. When a customer wants ultra pure white and they grabbed a deep or medium base. I don't get mad because I saved them from the hassle of having to return it or worse if they put it on their wall.
8. When a customer wants paint tinted right before the store closes. Everything else on the list is just cringe and kind of funny but this one actually pisses me off. You have had 16 hours in the day to get your shit and you come in now? My alcoholic ass is trying to get home. Last thing I want to deal with is you. Also if you are rude I am going to tell you to leave and that we are closed and all of the registers are shut down and if it is something that will take more than 10 mins to do I will tell them to come back tomorrow because I don't want them to wander and get wacked by a reach truck.